Tuesday June 23, 2020
By David Ochieng Mbewa
Somalia became the latest country in Africa to resume its domestic football season following suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic. COURTESY: TWITTER/Somali FA
Somalia became the second African country after Tanzania to resume its domestic football season following a three-month suspension due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In March, the minister for youth and sports, Khadija Mohamed Diriye announced a halt to all sporting activities in the country shortly after the first COVID-19 case was reported in the country.
The last game in the Somali Premier League to be played was a 2-1 away win for Mindimo against Jazeera on March 18.
Following the resumption on Thursday, Horseed Sports Club beat Raadsan 4-0 while Mogadishu City defeated Elman 2-0 on Friday. Meanwhile, on Monday, Dekkeda thrashed bottom-of-the-table Rajo 4-1.
Thursday and Friday’s matches had been scheduled to take place just before the suspension of the season.
On Wednesday last week, the Somali Football Federation president Abdiqani Said Arab announced that all football competitions in the country will resume on Thursday after the federal government allowed a resumption of all sport in the country. The Somali Premier League became the first sport in the country to restart following the break.
Senior Somali FA vice president, Ali Abdi Mohamed had said that a number of precautions had been taken to ensure the resumption of the league. These included having all matches played without spectators until further notice, a ban on pre-match handshakes, rearrangement of technical benches to ensure social distancing, provision of hand sanitizers and tissue paper and deployment of additional stewards and volunteers to enforce regulations.
Horseed currently top the table with 25 points after 12 games followed by Mogadishu City and Dekkeda both on 24 points. However, Dekkeda has played a game more than Horseed and Mogadishu City. Jazeera and Rajo are ninth and tenth respectively with six and five points.